Light
What Is Light Source?
A light source is an object that emits its own light.
o Hot objects such as flames, the Sun, and torch bulbs, are light sources.
o Some light sources are not hot, such as computer screen
Straight Lines
When you see the straight rays of light spreading out from the sun, that tells us that light
travels in straight lines.
Luminous and Non-Luminous
An object which is a source of light is described as luminous
o Examples: Sun, Moon, Stars
An object which is not a source of light is described as non-luminous
o Examples: pen, book,chair, table
The chair is non-luminous, you need a source of light to see it
When Light Strikes An Object
When light strikes an object, different things can happen. It depends on the material the
object is made of:
o The light may pass straight through the object. It has been transmitted.
o The light mat be absorbed by the object (the object gets a little warmer). The material
is opaque.
o The light may bounce off the object. It has been reflected.
Forming A Shadow
A shadow forms when an opaque object blocks the light. it forms because light travels in
straight lines-it cannot bend round corners.
Rays of Light
To understand where the tree’s shadow will fall, you need to draw the ray’s light that
comes from the sun.
By understanding the picture above, you can see which rays are blocked by the tree.
This will show you where the tree’s shadow will be.
Bouncing Light
The picture you see in a mirror is called an image.
A mirror has a flat, and smooth surface. Rays of light bounce off a mirror without being
scattered.
Meanwhile a sheet of paper has a rough surface, when rays of light strike the paper,
they are scattered in all directions.
Predicting The Path Of Light
The law of reflection tell us about the direction in which the ray is reflected.
How to read the diagram?
o The mirror is represented by a straight line; the shading shows the back of the mirror
o The ray of light coming in is called the incident ray.
o The ray of light going out is the reflected ray.
o To predict the direction of reflected ray, you need to draw the normal to the normal
surface of the mirror.
o The normal is a straight line drawn at right angles (90 degree) to the mirror.
The law of reflection of light says the two angles marked in the diagram are equal:
o Law of reflection: angle of incidence=angle of reflection
Transparent Material
Water and glass are transparent materials. Light can pass through them, but something
happens when light enters or leaves such a material.
The change of direction of a light ray when it enters or leaves a transparent materials is
called refraction.
Rays Changing Direction
The ray travels in a straight line to the surface of water. This is where it bends. The
straight ray then travels to the eye.
o To understand how it bends, you draw the normal to the surface at the point where the
ray bends. The normal is drawn at 90 degree to the surface.
Splitting Light
You can see the colors of the rainbow for yourself by sending a ray of white light into a
glass prism (triangular glass block)
o When a light enters the prism it bends (refracted). It also bends as it leaves the prism.
o Something else happens. The white light is split up into a spectrum of colors.
The splitting up of white light into separate color is called dispersion.
o The color of spectrum always appear in the same order: red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo, violet.
Explaining Dispersion
Dispersion happens because of refraction.
o When white light enters a block of glass, some color bend more than others.
o Violet bends the most, red the last.
o This means that the different colors travel off in different directions, so that we can see
them separately.
What Is Colored Light?
To make colored light, there is a filter is placed in front of a bright white light.
A filter is a piece of colored plastic or glass. It only lets through some of the colors which
make up white light. It absorb the other colors.
For example: a red filter lets through red light. It absorbs yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
violet.
Adding Colored Light
How to put white light back together?
o Put the primary color (red, green, blue) shine them together, so that their different colors
overlap.
o When you use them together, all colors of the spectrum are present and they add up to
give white.
Reflecting Colored Light
Grass is green because it reflects green light from the Sun.
o It absorbs all of the colors of sunlight. This is called color subtraction.
A red object reflects red light and absorb all other colors. While objects reflect all colors
of light and black objects absorb all colors.
